Freemasonry and the Masonic Hall at Beamish

Kate Reeder

The interior of the lodge room at Beamish now and (below right) as it appeared in 1907

The opening of the Masonic Hall
at Beamish, The North of England
Open Air Museum in April 2006
was the culmination of a project that began
in 1988. Beamish is an open-air museum
set in a 300-acre site in the north east of
England, between Durham and Newcastle.
Threatened significant buildings from around
the region have been physically moved to
the museum and set in the landscape. They
are interpreted by people in costume; the buildings are set in 1913 or 1825 depending
on the area in which they are located.

The purpose of the museum is to
preserve the history of the North East. The
Masonic Hall provides an insight into the
changing world of freemasonry. Set in 1913
the building, with its costumed interpreters,
allows members of the public to explore
Edwardian freemasonry at their own pace.
At that time the institution was much more
public, visible and thriving than it is today.

Although masonic halls, or ‘temples’ as they
are sometimes known, are not considered to be
places of worship, there are obvious similarities
between their architecture and the ecclesiastical
architecture of the Victorian and Edwardian
periods, not only in terms of size and form,
but also in terms of the threats they now face.

FREEMASONRY

In England, freemasonry is a society for men
that focuses on moral and spiritual values,
and for many years freemasons have followed
three great principles; brotherly love, relief
(charity and care), and truth. A belief in a ‘supreme being’ is the essential qualification
for freemasonry: God by whatever name a
man’s religion dictates. Membership is open to
men of any religion or race who can fulfil this
essential qualification and who are of ‘good
repute’. Members progress though a hierarchical
system which includes apprentices, fellows
and masters. These ‘degrees’ of craft masonry
progress a man through masonry using plays
containing symbolism following ancient forms.
The plays use stonemasons’ customs and tools
as their basis which are learnt by heart and
performed within the local branch or ‘lodge’.

The masonic hall, Cheltenham (by GA Underwood, 1818–23): one of the most magnificent of the early purpose-built examples in the country.

The secrets of freemasonry are the
traditional methods of recognition: the
handshake and particular phrases. These
codes stem originally from the need to be
able to recognise a qualified freestone mason
in the Middle Ages. However, it is not a
secret society since all members are free to
acknowledge their membership and will do so
in response to enquiries for respectable reasons.
Furthermore, its constitution and rules are
available to the public, and there is no secret
about any of its aims and principles. Like many
other societies, it regards some of its internal
affairs as private matters for its members.

Although its actual origins are now
uncertain, the history of freemasonry is a
fascinating trail. The word ‘freemason’ is a
shortening of ‘freestone mason’, freestone
being the close grained material used for
decorative carving. Historical use of this term
has caused a great deal of confusion when
researching the origins of freemasonry as this
term was only adopted by the movement in
the early 1800s. Prior to this they referred
to themselves as ‘accepted’, ‘adopted’, ‘freed’,
‘free’ or ‘free and accepted’ masons. It is
thought that this was to distinguish those
men who actually worked in stone from
those who were members of freemasonry.

Historically, researchers have seen links
between early masons’ marks in stone and
the symbols used in freemasonry. These links
are not proof of early freemasonry but proof
that the symbols used in freemasonry were
widely used. Freemasonry’s apparent reliance
on symbolism dates back to the 1600s when
recorded freemasonry began, and few people
could read and write. Many organisations,
including the church, used symbols to teach
values at this time, and freemasonry adopted
some of these. The square and compass,
now universally recognised as the symbol of
freemasonry, was already in use by the church
as a visual representation of leading one’s
life within God’s regulation and direction.

It was not until the late 1800s that any
investigation into the history of freemasonry
really began. At its most simplistic, the
debate is: does freemasonry directly descend
from stonemasons’ lodges or is it simply an
organisation that uses stonemasonry as a
symbolic base? Masonic ritual centres around
what could now be regarded as a creation
myth. When King Solomon built his temple
at Jerusalem in approximately 950 BC there
were two classes of skilled stonemason
working on the building. There were three
grand masters overseeing the work and
keeping a certain secret, and one of them was
murdered because he would not divulge the
secret. Substitute secrets were adopted, until
the original secrets could be re-discovered,
and these became the rituals and secrets of
freemasonry. There are, however, no known
credible direct links between operative and
speculative freemasons at any point in history.

One of the more romantic notions is
that freemasonry was established by the
Knights Templar who fled France in 1314,
although this, like many other stories, has
now been completely discredited. Perhaps
more plausible is the idea that freemasonry
was established as a self-help group owing
to the lack of a welfare system in the 1600s.
Some theories link freemasonry to the political
and religious tensions of the 1500s and 1600s
when groups could have posed as operative
lodges in order to meet, even though members
were of all different political and religious
views, with the idea of working together
towards social improvement and tolerance.

However the organisation began, one of
the first written records of making a freemason
was in October 1646, in the diary of Elias
Ashmole. By the late1600s there is a great
deal of evidence about masonic lodges. By the
late 1690s the freemasons were clearly large
enough and prominent enough that antimasonic
leaflets were being printed. On 24 June
1717, English freemasonry became centrally
organised when the first Grand Lodge was
formed. Despite splits within the organisation,
and their virtual outlawing under the Unlawful
Societies Act of 1799, freemasonry united
and grew in strength, particularly by the late
1800s. It was in this period that a number of
the purpose-built masonic halls rose around
the country. Early freemasons had met in
rooms in inns and coffee houses, but with the
growth of lodges this was no longer a practical
option. In 1814 there were 637 lodges for the
whole country; by 1901 there were 2,850.

Above left: the Grade II* listed masonic hall at Boston, Lincolnshire was built in 1860-63
to a design based on David Roberts' drawings of 'The Temple of Dandour, Nubia'
published in 1848. (Photo: Patricia Beaton, Boston Borough Council). Above right: The masonic ‘temple’ in Ilfracombe, Devon, designed by H M Gardner in 1899, is
listed Grade II. Its facade is a fine example of the late Victorian eclectic approach
to Classical architecture. (Photo: North Devon District Council)

FREEMASONRY IN COUNTY DURHAM

There is evidence of masonic meetings in
County Durham in the 1600s. Each lodge
had its own characteristic, often relating to
the occupation of its members, such as the
Sea Captain’s Lodge at Sunderland. Some
even took their name from where they met:
the Marquis of Granby Lodge is named after
the inn where it used to meet. As the lodges
grew in strength in the mid-1800s and moved
into purpose-built premises, this stability
allowed for greater financial and fraternal
benefits, giving members a sense of identity.
Such buildings did take the masons out of
regular public contact, but they continued to
maintain strong public links through hosting
events such as special charity theatre evenings
which they would attend in regalia. The
construction of a hall also showed the world the
permanency and dedication of the movement.

Durham was a progressive province in
terms of the number of dedicated masonic halls.
County Durham boasts the oldest continuously
occupied masonic private premises in England,
built by Phoenix Lodge in 1785 in Sunderland.
The lodge first proposed building its own hall
in 1763, although it wasn’t until 1775 that a site
was found. Unfortunately, the building they
erected burned down in 1782, and the building
standing there today is its replacement.
Progress in Country Durham continued
and, by 1869, 11 out of 19 lodges in the
county met under their own roofs. In 1871
the Provincial Grand Master expressed
his desire never to see freemasons meet
at inns again, and the province obliged.

MASONIC ARCHITECTURE AND SYMBOLISM

The exterior of these purpose-built 19th-century
buildings usually reflects the grand architecture
of contemporary civic buildings, and there are a
few spectacular examples, such as one in Boston,
Lincolnshire which is modelled on the Temple
of Dandour, Nubia, and a fine regency example
in Cheltenham. However, when walking down
the street there is often very little on the exterior
to distinguish them from civic buildings or, in
some cases, from non-conformist churches, apart
from the words ‘Masonic Hall’ and, as in the
case of the building at Beamish, a few masonic
symbols. It is only the interior that is unique.

Typically, a hall has a minimum of three
main rooms, the robing room, the lodge room,
which is the main ceremonial meeting space,
and the dining room. Depending on the size
and number of lodges meeting in the building,
there may also be duplicate rooms and additional
rooms such as a library, committee room
and tyler’s room. (The tyler is the man who
prepares the lodge room and guards the door.)

Each hall has its own characteristics and
each lodge room has its own peculiarities:
throughout the whole country no two lodge
rooms are the same. Before World War II the
majority of halls appear to have been decorated
in a contemporary style. After World War II,
hall interiors began to assume a more corporate
scheme, although a number have retained a
more traditional approach. It is the lodge room
which in its layout and architecture is identifiably
masonic. Ideally, this room is a double cube
like the one at Beamish, which is 25 foot wide,
25 feet in height and 50 feet long. Many halls
have a ceiling that is vaulted and decorated with
the constellation. The Beamish Hall ceiling is
decorated as the night sky would have appeared
on 24 June 1717 when the Grand Lodge of
England was first formed. The constellation
represents a number of masonic ideals and helps
with the story of freemasonry; it is often said to
remind brethren that everyone lives under the
same sky. Many lodges have a sunburst in the
centre of the ceiling, or a setting sun above the
Senior Warden’s chair and a rising sun above the
Master’s chair in the east, as during a meeting
the sun rises with the Master and sets with the
Senior Warden. The Beamish Lodge has a sunburst in the centre of the ceiling, copied from
the Phoenix lodge room in Sunderland, which
is said to be the only part remaining from the
original 1775 building. In the centre of this is
a ‘G’ within the circle of eternity represented
by the snake eating its tail. The ‘G’ stands
for the Great Architect, the Supreme Being
believed in by all freemasons. All lodge rooms
have a symbol like this hung in the centre of
the room, and the G is typical in England.
The seven stars within the circle represent
the seven liberal arts and sciences, grammar,
rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music
and astronomy. The majority of lodge rooms
have no windows as they were unnecessary.
Lodges met in the evening and often lit the
hall in a specific manner during ceremonies.

All lodge rooms have a chequerboard floor
covering; in some lodges this is a carpet rolled
out for the occasion and in other cases it is a
marble floor. The pattern represents light and
darkness, the joys and sorrows of life, which
although opposite are inseparable and make
a complete life. In some lodges this black-and-white floor is set square while in others
it is diamond set. At Beamish it is diamond
set and made from marble to cope with the
number of visitors walking across the surface.

All lodge rooms are set out with the Master,
the Senior Warden and the Junior Warden in the
same positions relative to each other. Each has a
chair, often carved with the symbol of his office, a
pedestal and a candlestick and in the case of the
two wardens, a column. The Master is situated
on the east side, from where he opens, rules and
directs the lodge. His symbol is the square, said
to be the controlling force. The Junior Warden
represents the sun, marking it at its highest point
and is seated on the south side. The plumb rule
is his symbol of justness and upright behaviour.

The Senior Warden, representing the moon
after sunset, sits opposite the Master in the
west, from where he attends to the closing of the
lodge. His symbol is the level showing equality.
The candlesticks also represent the roles played
by the three men using the three main orders
of architecture: Ionic, Doric and Corinthian.
The Master’s is of the Ionic order denoting
wisdom; the Senior Warden’s is of the Doric
order denoting strength, and that by the Junior
Warden of the Corinthian order denotes beauty.

THE BEAMISH HALL

The hall now at Beamish is a typical example of
the type of hall built in the late 1800s. Originally
it was built by St John’s Lodge of Sunderland,
which had met in 14 different hotels and two
other masonic halls between 1806 and 1870. In
1869 they laid the foundation stone with full
masonic ceremony, moving into the building
a year later. This was used by freemasons until
the 1930s when a larger building was required.
They sold the old one to the Durham Institute
for the Deaf and Dumb and it was used later by
the adjoining church. By the 1970s it had been
abandoned. It was in 1988 that Beamish and
the masonic province of Durham sat down to
discuss where they might find an appropriate
building to move to the museum site. At this
meeting it was suggested that that they walk
around the corner from the provincial office
to see the old hall, which they then did, only to
find that the building was in the process of being
demolished to make way for a development
of modern flats. Negotiating on the spot the
Museum secured the frontage of the building
as that was all that remained intact enough
to re-erect. Then began several years of
fundraising to find £1.2 million to rebuild the
hall. The funding came partly from the masons
themselves and partly from ERDF grants and
the rebuild was finally completed in April 2006.

Since only the frontage of the building could
be rescued, the rest of the building is a modern
construction. It is built from modern building
materials in line with modern regulations. The
interior room layout follows that of the original
building, except for the lodge room, which was
increased in size at the request of the masons
to be the perfect double cube. The rooms and
doorways have been increased in size for ease
of access. Fire doors have had to be added and
the building that joins the hall to the bank is a
fabrication to hide the lift that was required to
comply with modern access regulations.

The masonic hall at Beamish before reconstruction (top left) and afterwards (top right). Above left: the reconstructed reading room. Above right: the building in its original setting in Durham

As there
was no time to properly retrieve evidence from the
original building, other sources of evidence had
to be used to recreate the interior of the building.
There is one description of the interior written
in 1965 by a man who was relying on collective
memory of the building in the 1930s when the
masons moved out. The written account is
detailed, but as there was a fire in 1914 inside the
building, it does not wholly identify the interior
decorations used in 1913. The only picture of
the interior is in the 150th Anniversary Festival
of the Palatine Lodge programme produced in
1907. This picture in black and white shows the
inside of the lodge room, presumably in late
1906 or very early 1907 as the programme was
produced for 14 January 1907. It has been used
as the basis of the reconstruction.

To help with
the reconstruction a number of other sources
were used. The Marquis of Granby Lodge, which
met at the masonic hall in Durham, also had
its 150th Anniversary in 1913 and produced a
souvenir programme. This programme contains
a number of pictures of the interior of the hall. In
1884 the lodge room of the United Grand Lodge
was redecorated. Amazingly, the possible colour
schemes that were presented to the committee
have survived in the form of watercolour
sketches. These were used to inform the choice
of decoration in the lodge room at Beamish, because by a remarkable coincidence the hall
had also been repainted and altered in 1884.

The lodge room is as close to the original
as could be achieved. Some of the paintings
and furniture from the original room have
been returned to the Beamish site. Other items
were sourced from masonic halls around the
country, many from the Province of Durham.
The decorative scheme uses traditional paint
colours from Farrow and Ball along with historic
painting techniques of marbling and graining
wood to make it look more expensive. The
aim was to try and make the building feel as it
would have done in 1913, and to ensure that the modern
requirements of fire doors and plasterboarded
walls did not detract from the historic feel of
the building. According to visitor feedback,
masons and non-masons all feel the building is
a success. Few realise that only the frontage is
original and that is a tribute to all who helped
create the building and continue to interpret it.

This
article is reproduced from Historic Churches, 2007

Author

KATE REEDER is Curator of Social History at Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum
and has been involved with the Masonic Hall
project since her arrival at the Museum in 2004.
She studied history at the University of Nottingham,
specialising in medieval women and religion, and
has a masters degree in Museum and Artefact Studies from the University of Durham.